He was even happier when police returned most of the money taken from his store.

"I'm lucky," the store clerk said Saturday, Jan. 26. He asked not to be identified for fears of his own safety. He does not want the man arrested to come find him.

The clerk said that sometime between 10:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m., a man walked into his store, Virginia's Party Store, 326 Burton St. SW. The man looked like a "normal customer" and bought a few items, the clerk said. Then the man waited for another customer to leave the store.

The clerk emptied most of the money out of the cash register and gave it to the suspect. The whole time, the clerk hoped a customer would walk into the store and break up the robbery.

"I hoped a customer would come in quick, quick," the clerk said. "But he just walked a foot out the door, and then a customer came."

The clerk quickly called police, who arrived at the store within minutes. He gave police a detailed description of the man and showed them surveillance footage of the alleged robbery. One officer said he saw the man near Division Avenue about 10 minutes earlier.

It did not take officers long to arrest a man matching the description, the clerk said. Police later returned with most of the money.

The clerk said his cut was not deep, and he declined medical treatment. In his 30 years at the store, this was the first problem he has had with crime.